Alyson Connollyhttp://alysonconnolly.com
Voice & Public Speaking Coach, Edmonton, AlbertaSun, 17 Mar 2019 15:41:37 +0000en-CAhourly1https://wordpress.org/?v=4.8.9Serenity Now!http://alysonconnolly.com/serenity-now/
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 04:23:24 +0000http://alysonconnolly.com/?p=767Last year the world was fixated on 12 Thai boys and their coach. A soccer team trapped in a cave and a frantic rescue mission trying to save them. I wondered how they were keeping calm? Was anyone freaking out? But we saw pictures of them looking very relaxed, even smiling. Turns out their coach,...

]]>Last year the world was fixated on 12 Thai boys and their coach. A soccer team trapped in a cave and a frantic rescue mission trying to save them. I wondered how they were keeping calm? Was anyone freaking out? But we saw pictures of them looking very relaxed, even smiling. Turns out their coach, Ekkapol Chanthawong was a Buddhist monk who had previously lived in a monastery for 10 years. He knew he needed to keep the boys calm and reached back to his experience as a monk and used meditation.

Link to the full story:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-44791998

Why meditation?

Meditation may seem to be a practice of the mind, but it has a direct effect on you physically and on your brain. The amygdala in our brain plays a key role in the processing of our emotions. When we experience fear, the hypothalamus, which is the control centre of our brain, sends a message to the amygdala which then activates the fight, flight or freeze response. Your adrenaline is on overdrive and the stress hormone cortisol is secreted. As a result, we take shallow breaths, our body tenses up and we just want to run! Not something that you want to experience when you’re trapped in the cave, or even for you, when you’re delivering a speech. Meditation is a wonderful way to calm down that amygdala, and prevent the domino effect of panic. In the book, “Rewire Your Anxious Brain”, (New Harbinger Publications, Inc., 2015) authors Catherine M. Pittman and Elizabeth M. Karle write that meditating regularly helps reduce your stress and anxiety. It also helps to reduce high blood pressure, insomnia, and panic attacks.

It is all in the breath!

Great speakers breathe deeply. They take their time and don’t rush their words. They look like they could be up there forever! I instill in my clients the need to become aware of their breathing. Do they take shallow, short breaths from their upper chest or do they breathe deep into their lungs? I get them to visualize dropping their breath as deep as they can. Remember when you were a kid and were upset? Your Mom told you to take a few deep breaths to calm down. She was right. Breathing deeply activates the calming ‘rest and digest’ parasympathetic nervous system. Breathing is an integral part of meditation.

Meditation isn’t new, it has been around a long time, since at least 100 BC. You probably have the image of people sitting cross legged chanting ‘om’. Yes, that is one way to do it. “But”, you say, “I have so little time in the day. Plus, if coworkers here me chanting, they’re going to think I’ve lost my mind!” When you meditate you focus on one thing, it can be your breath, or the ocean, or an object. You don’t need to sit cross legged and ohm while incense is burning, unless that’s your jam. For me, I go to my happy place. I’m lying on the beach hearing the waves go in and out, feeling the sun on my body as I’m sinking into the sand or chair. But you can find another way that works.

In his book, Meditation for Beginners,( Justin Albert, 2014), the author gives great examples: Here’s one:

Sit in a room that doesn’t have any distractions, (like a computer, TV, or your three year old). Slowly breathe in and out. Go through a few cycles. Now after you exhale, count in your mind “one” then exhale and count “two”, exhale again and count ‘three”. Go all the way up to ten and start again at one. Counting just to 10 and then going back to the beginning feels like a loop. When you count higher than 10 it just seems like it is never ending.

*** If your mind wanders then just allow to come back and start again.

The world rejoiced when those Thai soccer players were rescued and it might take a long time for them to recover. But I bet the meditation exercises they went through helped prevent more stress and made recovery easier.

So next time, even hours before your presentation, when your palms are starting to sweat, your hands are trembling and you’re thinking, “I gotta find a way out of this!” try to meditate. Who knows, you might even make it a daily thing…

]]>How to Command Attention as a Women at a Business Meetinghttp://alysonconnolly.com/command-attention-women-business-meeting/
Sun, 30 Dec 2018 22:11:46 +0000http://alysonconnolly.com/?p=752Ignite Magazine at Carleton University Women in Business

]]>PIE – A quick and tasty speechhttp://alysonconnolly.com/pie-quick-tasty-speech/
Sat, 01 Dec 2018 00:48:11 +0000http://alysonconnolly.com/?p=739 I’m going to serve you up a piece of pie this month. But not a tasty morsel of apple or banana cream – a PIE that will be a delicious speech for your audience to appreciate. (and in this case, in a hurry) You’ve been asked to give a speech TOMORROW about the...

]]>I’m going to serve you up a piece of pie this month.But not a tasty morsel of apple or banana cream – a PIE that will be a delicious speech for your audience to appreciate.(and in this case, in a hurry)

You’ve been asked to give a speech TOMORROW about the progress of your company and you think, “No problem, I can talk about this for ages”. Which I’m sure you can and good for you! What if you need to present to a group who is going to invest in your company? Then the stakes are just a bit higher. You need to be really prepared. And you’re rushed. You only have a little bit of time to get this together. That is when you start thinking about PIE. PIE is an acronym for focusing on three important elements of your speech:

Point–Illustration– Explanation

P: The point is your thesis. It is why you are speaking to the audience. In an essay, your main point usually occurs in the first paragraph and is written in one sentence. But you’re not writing an essay, you’re writing a speech.So before your get into the main point, you need to hook your audience. You know, something that will catch their interest and make them want more. If you are giving the speech about your company’s progress, you could show a picture of the original building, an anecdote of how the founder worked weekends to make sure that deadlines were met or even a statistic from the number of employees you had when the company first began compared to how many are working there now.

Now, you can get to the main point:

In this case your main point could read: “Through the years, we have become one of the most successful companies in our field.”Simple and right to the point.

I: Now get onto the “I” of PIE, illustrating what you mean. Why are you the most successful? What has your company done to achieve success? Why should investors give you money? Why should the audience agree that your company is the best for the job?

E: Finish up with the explanation: this is where you bring in your own opinion. You analyze the facts that you just illustrated. You are engaging in the argument that your company is best.

Conclusion: Now that you’ve given your speech, end it with a bang. It is the finale, like the desert at the end of a meal.Delicious!

]]>How I Became a Dummie (Writer)http://alysonconnolly.com/became-dummie-writer/
Wed, 10 Oct 2018 23:07:15 +0000http://alysonconnolly.com/?p=724It was February of 2017. I attended a lunch meeting for the charity that I’m involved with. Now I usually don’t eat bread (this subject will come up later), but I enjoyed the sandwiches. The meeting concludes and off I go to the tailor to pick up my alterations. As I bend down and reach...

]]>It was February of 2017. I attended a lunch meeting for the charity that I’m involved with. Now I usually don’t eat bread (this subject will come up later), but I enjoyed the sandwiches. The meeting concludes and off I go to the tailor to pick up my alterations. As I bend down and reach for the bag on the floor I am struck with this excruciating pain in my chest. I drive home and the pain doesn’t subside at all, in fact it gets worse! I was trying to breathe deeply, like I’ve been coaching all my clients to do, but I couldn’t do it. I could only take short little breaths from my upper chest. I park the car, run into the house and announce to my husband, taking snippets of breath, that I should go to the hospital.

“Why don’t you lay down for a bit and see if it will get any better?” was his reply. “Oh sure” I’m thinking. “I will join the statistics of fit and healthy women who have a chest pain and lie down to DIE!”

The look on my face of “you love me, don’t you?” convinced him to get off the couch, get his keys and get in the car.

When you tell the nurse at the front desk at Emergency that you’re having chest pains, it doesn’t take long for you to get into a room. Soon I was being asked questions and hooked up to some kind of monitor to check my heart rate. Even though I was rushed in rather quickly, once I was on a monitor, there was a fair amount of waiting. I talked to my husband for a while and then, like all of us who are trapped in the world of our phones, I decided to check my email.

Out of the blue!

There was a new one: “Allow me to introduce myself”, it started. I don’t know about you but I never read an email that begins like that. But something told me that I should take a look at this and read it.This looked different. And it sure was. The writer went on to say that she was the Senior Acquisitions Editor for the Wiley publishing company. That’s the one that publishes the Dummies books. Would I be interested in writing a book on public speaking for Dummies? Dummies, those black and yellow iconic “how to” books that are found everywhere!

Remember, I’m lying in a hospital bed with chest pains and taking shallow breaths. And I know, because I’ve learned this, that when we take shallow breaths we are not getting the oxygen to our brain. Perhaps I am hallucinating! I pass the phone to my husband to read. “Yeah, this is from the Dummies.” Oh my! How did they find me?” Which is the question I asked the next day when I called her.

(After 10 hours of EKG’s, ultra sounds and heart monitoring, it turns out that I had an esophageal spasm. The bread that I ate went down the wrong way and got stuck!)

Phone call

I receive the number that I have to call to reach Tracy at Wileys. It feels surreal. Here I am calling someone whose publishing house is world famous.One of the first things I ask is “Why me”. My husband is in the room and mouths, “Why not you?” My Masters thesis was on alleviating performance anxiety in public presenters but I’d only written a couple blogs. But she liked my website, thanks to Big Pixel in Edmonton, liked my approach and how I came to be a coach. We talked timelines and they wanted the book to be on the shelves by mid November. She told me she would get back to me. This was in February. A month went by and I didn’t hear anything. In April I received a note that told me to hang tough and in May I received a call that they have had a shuffling around at Wiley’s publishing but still want me to write the book and could I get a Table of Contents sent to them ASAP. Table of Contents? Have I mentioned that the only thing I’ve written to this point are blogs and a thesis! What the heck am I going to write about? I have learned that writing a Table of Contents is kind of the map. It is easier to expand and write a chapter if you know what you’re writing about. Duh! My husband is a journalist and just told me to write about what I know then write about what people need to know. Soon, a Table of Contents with 22 chapters was born. I had to write a sample chapter to make sure that I could actually write. Then my husband and I went off on holidays, and when I got back I received word that everything was OK. Originally they wanted me to write a chapter every three or four days! It was the busiest year yet giving workshops and working with clients. There was no way that I could keep up the pace. So we agreed to write a chapter a week. And the deadline was pushed to March 19.

Writing is a Piece of Cake!

The most challenging part of writing the book was finding the time to write. It was the busiest year coaching and giving workshops so it was hard to get time during the day to write. I’m not a night owl so I found that waking up early and writing was the best for me. I would get up at 5:30 and write until 7:30. Then I’d go off to work and snag more time during the day to write some more. Also to be as clear as possible. I’m not a natural writer; what I do is practical.So having to write it down so that everyone can understand what I mean was difficult at first. I did get better! Also, the editing process was humbling to say the least! For a chapter of 16 pages I received 55 comments all in red!

This is for real!

When I received the last set of edits the copy was in the Dummies format. I started to cry. No one was home so I sent a note to my editor, Corbin in Indianapolis, and told him “I’m crying now!”When I first received the actual copies of the book it was surreal. I still have a hard time looking at the cover, and seeing my name on it!

Improvements

Since I had to articulate everything really clearly I became a better coach. There were tons of ‘Ah ha!’ moments. Whether it was listening to my pilates teacher’s description on how we breathe to a client’s experience regarding the pros and cons of power points. I drew a lot of my writing on what I learned in individual coaching sessions and the workshops.

Speaking Secrets

People are amazed at things that I just take for granted since I’ve been studying the voice for a long time. One thing is the fact that to me public speaking is a conversation between you and the audience. I had a client tell me that he never thought of it that way. He just assumed that when he speaks to more than one person he has to reach everyone. Yes you do, but it is best to find someone in the group and tell them your story for a few seconds then look on to someone else. That way you can really connect with your listeners. I also had a client blown away by my explanation of why, when we hear ourselves recorded, our voice sounds so high. That’s because when we speak, sympathetic vibrations go through our skull, our ears and our face. The vibrations slow down and by the time the sound reaches our ear our voice sounds lower. Take three full breaths before you present. This activates our rest and digest nervous system and calms us down. You can do this even when the group is gathering around the table, or when you’re listening to the emcee introducing you.

You’re never too late!

I went back to receive my Masters at 50. They accepted two people; myself and a 28 year old. It was humbling to go back and fiddle through things, like the computer, which the young’uns find so easily. When it was time for a thesis, most vocal pedagogues (fancy name for voice coach), would coach a play in the Drama department and then write about their experience. I was more interested in working with business people rather than actors. Quite frankly there’s not a lot of need for vocal coaches in the theatre unless you’re working on a different dialect. Our youngest son, Jack, was asked to play the trumpet for the Last Post at his High school. On the day of the performance, he came upstairs and told me, “ I’m having a panic attack and I can’t breathe!” I instructed him to take some deep breaths, imagine giving a great performance and that this was a wonderful opportunity to strut his stuff. He went off to school and played. We don’t know how he did cause he wouldn’t let my husband and I attend!

That was where my thesis of alleviating performance anxiety in public presenters was born.

What’s Next?

Really, I have no idea. I still haven’t gotten used to reading my name on the cover. I am still offering workshops and 1-1 client sessions, and keynotes but now I’ve added telling the media my story. Who knows where this book will lead me? I’m just so grateful for the opportunity to have written it. And now I get to sleep in. That is until I get a call to write the Revised Copy!

]]>The Hookhttp://alysonconnolly.com/the-hook/
Thu, 30 Nov 2017 23:49:47 +0000http://alysonconnolly.com/?p=604“Today, I’m going to talk about the benefits of living in a cold climate. I live in Edmonton, where it is cold in the winter ”….. Yawn! I am ready to go to sleep! I’ve heard many speakers who start a speech that way. And you know what? The audience already knows what they are...

]]>“Today, I’m going to talk about the benefits of living in a cold climate. I live in Edmonton, where it is cold in the winter ”….. Yawn! I am ready to go to sleep!

I’ve heard many speakers who start a speech that way. And you know what? The audience already knows what they are going to talk about because they read his bio and they read about the topic in the program and that is why they are here listening. So quit wasting their time.

You want to get the audience’s attention right off the bat and you’re certainly not going to do it with that! You need to grab their attention with a hook. Just like a fish, the audience won’t bite unless you give them something to chew on. People form opinions of you within the first 30 seconds. If you have something important to say, which I am sure you do or else you wouldn’t be standing up there, you have to grab them first. The hook can be the first sentence, but not always. But it is the first idea you give to the audience and it sets the tone for what’s to come.

Here are some techniques to grab them:

Ask a question: “Who here enjoys freezing their butt off?”

Asking a question engages the audience right away. They have their coffee in one hand and a treat in the other and think they can snuggle into a cozy speech, but now they are put on the spot. They don’t have to answer out loud but can think about it. A question arouses their curiosity of what the speaker will say next.

A quote: This reinforces your ideas and echos your claims. It shows that you are prepared. Make sure you say the exact quote from a reliable source. And that you know the intent of the speaker who said the quote.

Show a visual: A photo, a short video a graph or a prop. Not only is this a great attention grabber, but all focus is on the visual rather than you, which helps if you feel nervous.

Present a surprising fact or statistic: A statistic can be a great attention-grabber, especially if it contradicts a widely held belief and surprises the audience.

Add some local flavour: If you’re speaking outside your home turf, mention something that demonstrates you have some familiarity with the area. Mention a local sports team, a coffee shop or restaurant you stopped at, some local news story you heard that morning, a popular event that’s being held, or some other topic of local interest. Performers coming in to for a show do this all the time. It is really easy. Pick up the local paper, or ask your contact.

Tell a Story: We all love stories, so consider telling a story related to the topic you’re about to speak about or something that leads smoothly into that topic. A personal story is best, because it invites the audience to join you in your world. In this speech your story could be about when you were a kid and you’d rush outside at recess to play on the snow mound.

Sound off: What would a movie be without sound effects? How about a haunted house? In this speech you could start it off with a sound effect of walking in the snow, crunching, or the sound of people throwing snowballs.

Engage with humour: Tell a joke! The key to this one is knowing your audience. Nothing’s worse than crickets after a punchline, especially when you are using the joke to start your speech. Don’t alienate anyone. Be professional. Stay away from jokes that pit one group against another, or you against the audience. A good joke softens a crowd and makes them more likely to like you, and just maybe, what you have to say.

Land That Audience

There are a lot of different ways you can hook your audience, as I have detailed here. Which is the best for your presentation? It depends on you and the audience. What are you comfortable with? And what is appropriate for the audience? If you’re not naturally funny, don’t try to be with a joke. If your audience is a group of children, your hook is going to be different than a group of business people. Get off to a good start and you’ll be able to reel in the audience throughout your presentation.

]]>Campaign Speechhttp://alysonconnolly.com/campaign-speech/
Mon, 30 Oct 2017 21:43:26 +0000http://alysonconnolly.com/?p=595We just had a civic election here in Alberta. Congratulations to those who won, and good for you for wanting to make a difference in our fine province. I listened to many speeches over the course of the election and I’ve come up with a list of things that you can do better next time....

]]>We just had a civic election here in Alberta. Congratulations to those who won, and good for you for wanting to make a difference in our fine province. I listened to many speeches over the course of the election and I’ve come up with a list of things that you can do better next time.

Can I trust you?

Everybody worries about the content of your speech. I get it that content is king, especially when you are in an election, but it comes in a package. What the audience wants is a feeling from you. And in the case of the election the feeling is of trust. We want to trust that you will listen to our concerns and act on them. After all we received your flyer and read it. When we come to see you we want more than that.

Body Language

Body language sends a message. If you are fidgeting with your watch while giving your speech or have your eyes focused on the ground I would call that a down and in position. That position smacks of low self esteem. We want someone who will take charge and help make our community strong. Move your body in an up and out position and see how confident you become.

To Memorize or Not to Memorize

I tell my clients to always have their speech in front of them. It could be on a paper, or cue cards. Some memorize their speeches and that is fine, but in case you have a brain freeze, because there was a crash in the kitchen of the banquet hall or a phone (god forbid) rings, you may need to refer back to your speech. And please do not read from your phone. The font is just too small which makes you squint and lose your place really easily.

Do You Know Who you Are?

The one thing you can memorize and you really should know, is your name. I saw a lot of “My name is (looking down at the paper), Alyson Connolly. Say your name loud and proud, and then look down at your next sentence.

Thanks, but No Thanks

Almost everyone says “I would like to thank”, to which I think they are going to say, “but I won’t”. You usually have been given a limited amount of time to speak and you’ve just used up 3 seconds! Plus a simple “thank you” has more impact. One candidate repeated “I want to thank” six times! Couldn’t he have just made a list?

I’m so sorry?

The saying, “The show must go on”, is so true when giving a speech. In a speech never say you’re sorry. “ Sorry I missed a bit and I have to retrace my steps.” “Sorry I have to rush this bit because we’re out of time.” “Sorry to bore you with the details.” This just puts the audience on edge. We start to worry. Believe me, you want these people to vote for you and you don’t want any negativity surrounding you.

The dreaded “Um” (Could someone please pass this on to Justin Trudeau?)

We say” um” or “ah” when we are thinking of what to say next. We feel that we need to fill the empty space. but it really is just a few seconds and that gives the audience time to register with what you have just said. Instead of “um” just pause and breathe. That gives you time to formulate your next thought.

Speed Kills

Say this really fast: “Thank you for taking the time to hear what I have to say. It is important for you to make an informed decision when it’s time to vote.” That is what I heard, at breakneck speed, a lot! The audience mirrors the speaker and when the speaker speeds up it puts us on edge. You are trying to persuade people to vote for you. Don’t you want them to understand? Have you ever had to give directions to someone on the street? You need to speak slowly and clearly.

Take a breath at the end of a sentence. See what happens.You may think the time’s going by so slowly but it is not! Believe me, the audience will wait.

The Microphone is Your Friend (If you treat it right!)

The microphone is an aid to help you communicate your ideas.

That means that you have to speak directly into the mic.

Is this On? Can everybody hear me?

Do a sound check. Get to your event early and check out the microphone.

Find someone to be your audience.

If you have a technician, use him or her. Find the microphone’s off and on switch.

When ready to give your speech, don’t tap the mic and say is this on? Can everyone hear me?

Place the mike on the lectern at a good distance from you. It shouldn’t block your face.

Stand with good posture. Don’t be like the winners at the Academy Awards when they lean into the mic to speak.

If you have to hold the mic, hold it to your chest and keep your hand there, so when you turn your body, the mic turns with you.

If wearing a lavaliere, which is a mic clipped onto your clothing, wear something that it can be clipped onto; a blouse, or a shirt, not a T shirt or turtle neck. No clunky jewellry.

Stand with good posture.

The Camera is your Constituent

In these days of selfies and instagrams, many candidates posted messages on video. Please, let a friend hold your phone so that we are not distracted by the shakiness of your hand or the leaves on the ground. Look straight into the lens because you are speaking to us, not the phone.

If you practice these rules, who knows, you might soon be giving a lovely acceptance speech!

]]>We are All Public Speakers (Yes, Even You!)http://alysonconnolly.com/public-speakers-yes-even/
http://alysonconnolly.com/public-speakers-yes-even/#respondFri, 29 Sep 2017 23:33:07 +0000http://alysonconnolly.com/?p=579“I never speak in public”, said the IT guy at a function that I was at recently. “Really,” I replied, “Do you ever talk to your boss or colleague about what is going on in your department? When you are at a function like this one, do you ever explain to someone what you do?”...

]]>“I never speak in public”, said the IT guy at a function that I was at recently. “Really,” I replied, “Do you ever talk to your boss or colleague about what is going on in your department? When you are at a function like this one, do you ever explain to someone what you do?” That, my friend, is public speaking. You don’t have to be on a stage with a mic headset and a Power Point behind you.

The definition “Public Speaking” is just as it sounds: speaking publicly. We do that all the time, don’t we?

Land those thoughts

Whether you are speaking to a colleague about a project or the teacher at your kids’ school, you need to be clear and speak slowly enough so that your listener understands you. Rushing your speech makes the listener work really hard so sometimes he just zones out. Plus, if you have to repeat yourself that is tiring for you, too!

My friend is an ultra sound tech and meets many patients each day. She has to tell the patient exactly what to do when they get into the room and has to repeat this many times a day. That is public speaking. She has to be clear and has to explain the procedure precisely in an expedient time frame. After all, there are other patients waiting!

Your Elevator Pitch

Think of it as a few sentences that describe what you do in the time it takes the elevator to go down. Do you need one? If you are in business, you do. If you are a human being you do. For example: Hi, I’m Alyson Connolly. I’m a voice and Public Speaking coach. I work with people who are good but want to be great, those who would rather die than speak in public and those whose accent gets in the way of their clarity.” That starts a conversation where I can go into what I do with more detail.

Confidence

Some of my clients have problems speaking in crowds and others in small groups. In both instances they are worried about being judged. Are they saying the right thing? Will the group approve? Are their clothes too flashy? The key is not to focus on yourself but to focus on your message. What is it that you want to get across? What do you want the listener to come away with?

Our mind can play havoc with our confidence. Henry Ford’s saying, “If you think you can do it, or think you can’t do it, your right” is so true. How many times have you wanted to talk to the VP at a party, you know just to ask about her kids and you think, “She is a busy person and doesn’t have the time for small talk.” You’ve just blown a perfect opportunity to get to know each other in a calm and relaxed environment.

How about thinking positively that you will go up to the VP and have a great conversation? Changing your thinking can help gain confidence but so does taking a look at your body language. If you are working with a fellow coworker and discussing details about an upcoming project and you are looking down at the floor, does that exude confidence? Your coworker may be afraid that he is going to do all the work.

When I was in junior high walking to school, my Mom could see me walking down the street. Often I’d hear her shout “Alyson June, put those shoulders back!” I thought she was nuts, and I was super embarrassed, but I did it. And you know what, that made me feel more confident. Don’t believe me? Take a look at Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk on Body Language.

The Interview

A colleague of mine was on a panel to hire someone for a position at her company. It came down to two people: one who had worked part time at the company previously and another from out of town. Both gave solid presentations and clearly knew their stuff.At the interview, the candidate who was known by the company, slouched in his chair, looked downward and didn’t appear that he cared. Needless to say, he didn’t get the job. . The entire job interview is a performance. From the moment you walk in the room, until you leave. (Amy Cuddy studies the interview)

Practice

You know you have to practice your presentation, but you also have to practice answering the interview questions. Every one of my clients who I have worked with on mastering their interview were asked “why do you want this job? ”.Practice the answer.

Be clear and concise.

Come up with all kinds of other questions in your head that you may be asked and practice them out loud. Then when you are asked, you can answer in a confident manner. Rather than blundering out that you “um really want this job cause, um”…After all, regardless of what kind of company, I just bet they want to hire someone that is confident and in control.

So you see, we are all public speakers. Make sure you’re ready, practiced and confident the next time you get a chance to make a difference.

]]>http://alysonconnolly.com/public-speakers-yes-even/feed/0PowerPoint: Powerful or Pointless?http://alysonconnolly.com/powerpoint-powerful-pointless/
http://alysonconnolly.com/powerpoint-powerful-pointless/#respondTue, 13 Jun 2017 17:32:15 +0000http://alysonconnolly.com/?p=558PowerPoint. Is it Powerful or Pointless? Many of the clients who I work with use Power Point. Sometimes I question whether they need it or not. PowerPoint was developed as a series of slides for the Mac computer in the 1980’s by Robert Gaskins. It’s a presentation software program that uses a graphical approach to...

Many of the clients who I work with use Power Point. Sometimes I question whether they need it or not. PowerPoint was developed as a series of slides for the Mac computer in the 1980’s by Robert Gaskins. It’s a presentation software program that uses a graphical approach to presentations in the form of slideshows that accompany the oral delivery of the topic.

Words, Words, Words!

I don’t have a problem with slides, as long as they enhance what you’re saying. My biggest complaint when I watch a presentation, is often there are words on the slide and the speaker is saying something else. Where do we, as an audience focus? For me, nowhere. I try my best to listen to what the speaker is saying, but if there are words on the slides that I have to read, I get confused and zone out.

Why are we so dependent?

When we prepare for a presentation or speech, we want to excel. We want the audience to determine that we are smart. So, we go overboard and find out as much information on the subject and put it on a slide. Super exciting for the audience? Not! Why not just send us a handout and not even present?

Sometimes presenters read off the slides. When that happens, I want to stand up and shout, “Hey, we’re smart, too and we can read!”

Here is what one of my clients Margot Ross-Graham has to say about PowerPoint:

I love PowerPoint. It is an excellent tool to help facilitators share messages with groups and keep sessions on track. A few key messages, one or two graphs and important statistics make for a powerful PowerPoint presentation. Sadly, that is not how PowerPoints are generally used. Despite all the tips available to presenters on how to maximize a PowerPoint presentation many clutter each slide with too much information and simply read from the screen. This is a completely useless way to engage an audience. In fact, it begs the question “why would someone want to come to my presentation when they can read my PowerPoint deck and stay home. “ Once I started asking myself that question I decided that when I need to share statistics, formulas or graphic descriptors a PowerPoint presentation might be my best tool. However, when I want to share a compelling story that can help individuals or groups grasp an important message, pictures are much more powerful. Moving away from traditional PowerPoint allowed me to spend less time on fonts and bullet formatting and more time on my actual content. Today when I prepare for a presentation I look for opportunities to capture the essence of my message in one or two pictures. That gives me time to very clear on what message I want to leave, practice my delivery, and engage my audience. With pictures, I am able to spend more time communicating with the audience and less time reading to the audience. When it comes to powerful presentations, a picture really is worth a thousand words.

Margot makes some excellent points. Slides can be a crutch for the presenter. Many think that if you have many slides the audience will “stop looking at me!” (which unfortunately, is what many speakers want). I hate to break it to you, but statistics show that after a speech we remember 50% of what was said, by the next day it is 25% and a week later it is 10%. What we do remember is how the presenter made us feel.

You may have a lot of information to give. But to be memorable and have your main message sink in, the adage “less is more” often works better than a hundred bullet points that go in one ear and out the other. Focus on the feeling, message and big picture outcome. That’s what a great speech can achieve.